TEMPE, Ariz. >> Garrett Richards knows that if he wants to be the type of workhorse starter his talent says he can be, he’s going to do have to do it differently.

Richards, who is returning after successfully going through stem-cell therapy to avoid Tommy John surgery, said he’s expecting the Angels to have him on a tighter pitch count to keep him healthy.

“That just means I’m going to have to be more efficient,” Richards said Tuesday, the day Angels pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. “If I want to get deeper into games, I need to cut down 20 pitches. If I want to make it through the seventh or eighth, I have to be more efficient. If they want me to stay at 100 pitches, then I need to figure out a way to go deeper into games with 100 pitches. Maybe filling up the zone a little more, less walks.”

Richards has averaged 16.1 pitches per inning throughout his career. His average of 3.81 pitches per plate appearance is just about the league average, so the best way for him to be more efficient is to cut down on the 3.2 walks per nine innings.

Richards has thrown as many as 115 pitches seven times in his career. Perhaps not coincidentally, two them were the two starts before he got hurt last May.

That’s further reason that he expects to be on a tight pitch count, although he said no one has told him officially. Manager Mike Scioscia said the Angels have pitch- and innings-limits in mind for Richards, but he wouldn’t specify either.

While Richards expects to be treated differently, he said he doesn’t feel any different. After he made it through his five-inning outing in instructional league in October, he felt he’d cleared the final hurdle.

“The ball is coming out just as good as it ever was,” said Richards, who began throwing on Jan. 4 and threw his first bullpen session of the year on Friday. “It feels like I pushed a reset button on my arm. My shoulder feels good.”

Richards also said he’s done throwing the changeup. Adding that pitch was a major point of emphasis last spring and now he believes it led to his injury.

“I have never thrown a changeup before in my life and I start throwing a changeup and all of the sudden my elbow starts flaring up,” he said.

Without the changeup, which is a pitch often used to get hitters to make weak contact early in the count, Richards said he will rely on two fastballs – a cutter and a sinker – to try to get the quick outs that he will need to get deep in games.

“If I have a sinker and a cutter, guy have to respect two fastballs,” he said. “That’s hard (for hitters) to do. That’s what I was doing in 2014.”

Pujols cautious

In what has become an unfortunate spring training tradition for the Angels, Albert Pujols arrived in camp and discussed his prospects of being ready for opening day after surgery.

The Angels’ 37-year-old slugger had foot surgery in December, his third offseason surgery in the past five years. Although he recovered from the previous two in time to be in the opening day lineup, Pujols was issuing no guarantees as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.

“We’ll wait until April and see,” Pujols said.

Although Pujols was cautious, he nonetheless sounded optimistic. He said he can do everything on the field but run. He took some batting practice in the cage on Tuesday. He said he’s also been playing catch and taking ground balls.

“I can do whatever I want to do,” he said. “But I’m going to pace myself. I have a day that I’m targeting to be ready. When that day comes, you’ll know.”

Pujols had hoped to avoid all of this last October. He spoke shortly before the end of the season about how he was looking forward to a normal offseason, leading to playing more first base, instead of DH, in 2017.

In December, though, the treatment he had tried for his plantar fasciitis on his right foot failed.

“I did the procedure the doctor told me to do and it didn’t work out,” he said. “After six weeks I had the same pain, if not worse than I had at the end of the season. Then I made the decision that I needed to get this done. … I wish I would have done it right after the season and not wait till December, but we had to wait six weeks for this treatment and it just didn’t work out.”

Pujols said he’s not concerned about the missed time from his normal offseason routine. He said he normally wouldn’t have started hitting until January, so he believes he can make up the time in spring training.

If Pujols isn’t ready, the Angels have insurance in the form of Luis Valbuena, signed as a free agent last month. The Angels also have C.J. Cron back.

Once Pujols is healthy, he will again face the responsibility of hitting in the middle of the lineup, protecting Mike Trout. In recent years, his average and on-base percentage have declined, but he’s still hit for power. He hit 31 homers last year, bringing his career total to 590.

“I know if I’m healthy what I’m capable of doing,” said Pujols, who is starting the sixth year of a 10-year, $240 million deal. “My expectation is to try to help this club win the World Series, like every year.”

Shoemaker says he’s healthy

As Matt Shoemaker prepares to begin his 2017 season, the scar on the right side of his head appears to be only remnant of the frightening end to his 2016 season.

Shoemaker, who had brain surgery after he was hit in the head by a line drive in September, said he’s 100 percent now.

“I feel completely normal,” he said Tuesday. “I’m super thankful for how it all turned out, most definitely.”

Shoemaker said it took about two months to get over the headaches that were the last issue in his recovery, but otherwise he’s had a normal offseason.

Of course, he is aware that a key test is coming next week, when Angels pitchers begin throwing batting practice to hitters. Once a hitter is in the box against Shoemaker, he will find out if he’s mentally past the impact of what happened.

“The way I feel right now, mentally and physically I don’t think it’s going to be an issue at all,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to think about it. … Honestly, the only time I think about it is when I get talked to about it, which is fine. I expect that.”

Shoemaker is still experimenting with protective caps or padding he can wear inside his cap this season. He said he’s tried a couple caps and will try at least one more, but he will only wear something in a game if he can do it without thinking about it.

Also

Kole Calhoun (hernia) and Cron (thumb) have both been working out already on the minor league fields, showing no signs of their offseason surgery, Scioscia said. Andrew Heaney, who had Tommy John surgery last July, has been throwing. Richards said he’s played catch with Heaney and he looks good so far.

Jeff Fletcher has covered the Angels since 2013. Before that, he spent 11 years covering the Giants and A's and working as a national baseball writer. Jeff is a Hall of Fame voter. In 2015, he was elected chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.